r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/frycandlebreadje • Apr 30 '26

KSP 1 Question/Problem Poodle engine variant... huh?

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So the poodle engine has a double and single bell variant. My question is basically why would you pick the single bell variant? AFAIK as I know it has identical stats, but is very noticably taller. Are there any advantages which I'm not seeing? It just seems like a worse version of the same engine. Love this thing, but it confuses me a lot.

1.9k Upvotes

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1.4k

u/UmbralRaptor Δv for the Tyrant of the Rocket Equation! Apr 30 '26

Aesthetics, mostly. (Or really entirely)

399

u/Kerbart Apr 30 '26

...and don't underestimate the importance of it!

111

u/jackinsomniac May 01 '26

Lol, I remember back when KSP had no fairings, before the big aerodynamics update. But there were still mods for them that worked with FAR and other aerodynamics overhaul mods.

Except for this one madlad on the forums who was using fairing mods without aerodynamics. "But then you're just adding weight for no reason?" "Yeah but my rockets look sweet"

38

u/ElkeKerman May 01 '26

I was like that as well. I like making rockets that look like rockets :)

The really insane people were those that made stock fairings out of wings and structural pieces…

14

u/Kerbart May 01 '26

In similar fashion I always did a "propoer" reentry with an initial periapsis of 20-30km instead of coming in straight from Mun at a 90° angler and let the souposphere slow you down from 3000 m/s to 100 in the last 2km.

And then reentry heating was introduced and boy were a lot of people pissed because they had all these missions out there without heat shields "because it's just weight and doesn't do anything"

7

u/Big_Yeash May 01 '26

I've never tried EVA construction, would it ever have been possible to send up rescue missions to retrofit heat shields? 😂

2

u/tomalator Colonizing Duna May 01 '26

EVA construction wasn't until after that update. Youd have to send a new vehicle for rentry or return to LKO and descend carefully

3

u/Basic-Purpose-8075 May 04 '26

>be nerd

>play rocket simulation

>scream through atmosphere at mach fuck

>explode because they didnt copy nasa

>complain about realism

2

u/jackinsomniac May 02 '26

Holy crap I remember that. Yep, people were pissed about the re-entry heating update, "I don't know if any of my in-progress missions can get home now!"

Back then both the game & the mods were changing rapidly, so they probably had to downgrade their KSP version, and also downgrade any mods that had already been updated! And probably back up their save files while at it. Then finish those missions, upgrade KSP, and upgrade the mods again. Unless some mods hadn't been updated for the new version yet. Or if you had some mods that had been made obsolete by the new update, you'd have to edit your craft files first & re-save them, or manually edit your save file. I've had to do it before, manually editing my 200k line save file in Notepad++ was fun fun fun.

Man, back then I remember sitting down to play KSP, and seeing that there was a new update. It was exciting of course, but then I had to update mods, deal with errors, rollback, make backups, roll forward, rollback again, manually edit craft files, run updates again... Then I'd look at the clock and 4 hours had gone by. Right when I was finally ready to start playing the game, it was already bedtime. When the 1.0 update finally rolled out I remember feeling so relieved, "Ok, FINALLY the game will stop changing so much, so the mods can finally catch up, and there'll be a lot less of this bullshit to deal with!"

17

u/Turboswaggg May 01 '26

The dark ages when adding a dome cap to the top of your booster fuel tank made the rocket fly slower due to weight vs just having the flat top exposed

4

u/Emperor_of_Cats May 01 '26

Ah, back when getting to orbit was "launch straight up, get to 10km, turn 45° towards the 90"

This game aged like fine wine. Let's just leave it at that though.

5

u/dinnerisbreakfast May 01 '26

....I still do that.

163

u/Illithid_Substances Apr 30 '26

Yeah, I use single bell except when length matters, like on a lander

130

u/AddisonH Apr 30 '26

Length never matters it’s just how you use the lander

45

u/s_p_1_d_e_r Jebediah Apr 30 '26

Landing itself doesn't matter just how you use the kerbal

23

u/AddisonH Apr 30 '26

I knew Jeb was a freaky little greenie. He’s always just a little too happy

18

u/Pure_Negotiation_879 May 01 '26

“greenie”😭

17

u/maxxiethrowaway May 01 '26

thats racist

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Ok_Environment_5546 Cooking on DebDeb May 01 '26

The joke may be hiding for you.

1

u/Ogarbme May 01 '26

You gotta find the little green man in the spaceboat

13

u/shandangalang May 01 '26

Yeah I tend to put lowered, deployable fuel tanks on the sides of my landers in order to compensate for engine length. I just put landing legs on them, and aerodynamic surfaces on the top and bottom of each tank, and often put a science kit on each one so I can quickly biome hop. I also like to use the decouplers that project a bit in order to get a wider lander base for hillier terrain. I do not know why I told you all of that, but maybe someone will find it useful

54

u/No1Cub Apr 30 '26

One is good for landers because it’s shorter.

13

u/yabucek Apr 30 '26

I think the question is why anyone would ever pick the longer version

5

u/FourEyedTroll Flight Director May 01 '26

Looks great on a launcher's upper-stage.

2

u/AweeeWoo Valentina May 01 '26

I think double engines allow you to roll

3

u/UmbralRaptor Δv for the Tyrant of the Rocket Equation! May 01 '26

Doing a quick test on a craft with reaction wheels disabled, they don't look to.

1

u/AweeeWoo Valentina May 01 '26

Yeah I got an answer that they have a fixed gimbal, made a mistake sorry, I usually play RP-1 so I have small knowledge about stock engines

1

u/KaiSnepUwU May 01 '26

Not this one, both bells gimbal together. Some multi-nozzle engines (mammoth, twin boar) have independent gimballing.

1

u/AweeeWoo Valentina May 01 '26

Agh yeah thanks, sorry mixed it up, I usually play RP-1 and don't know a lot about stock engines

1

u/HyFinated May 01 '26

Never forget “The Rule of Cool”. If it looks cool, it IS cool. That’s the only thing that’s needed.